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Today in dumpster diving

Bedbugs destroyed our great dumpster-diving tradition, I think. It wasn’t long ago you could reliably find good stuff left up for grabs on street corners and figure someone just discarded it because they were moving and didn’t have the space or they were redecorating and going with a different color scheme. I still use a desk lamp I found in the lobby of my old apartment building about seven years ago. But if I saw that same lamp available in any public space today, I’d assume it was positively riddled with bedbugs desperate for a ticket inside my apartment to nest in my bookcase and breed under my pillow.

The Tigers cut Ryan Raburn today, which was not unexpected after his miserable 2012 campaign. Whatever happened to Raburn this season appears to be the baseball equivalent of a bedbug infestation: He went from being a good hitter in 2009 and 2010, to a slightly below average one in 2011, to sub-Jason Bay levels in 2012.

With Bay now gone, the Mets’ best righty-hitting outfielder currently in house is either Juan Lagares or Cory Vaughn, neither of whom has yet played above Double-A. If there’s any hope Raburn can return even to his 2011 form, it can’t hurt the Mets much to act on it. He’s hardly Scott Hairston in his ability to hit lefties, but presumably bringing in Raburn would not preclude Hairston’s return, given the organizational dearth of outfielders. Plus, Raburn’s not just an outfielder: He’s logged considerable time at second base in the Majors, with stints in the infield corners as well.

At 32, he looks like a reasonable low-risk option to fill a platoon or bench role in Flushing in 2013. If it pays off, Raburn would be a very useful guy to have: Depending on how the outfield shakes out, he could split time with Mike Baxter or Lucas Duda in a corner and/or spell Daniel Murphy and Ike Davis when they need days off, especially against tough lefties.

I know, I know. LOLMets. But it is what it is, and Raburn looks like a particularly good fit for the Mets, given their needs.